When you reference or copy from another artist's studies/sketches/art, you may be copying their mistakes as well. Furthermore, an artist's studies are their notes and --just like with history or chemistry notes-- copying someone else's notes will not help you fully understand the material. To completely understand anatomy, you must take your own notes and build your own understanding through observation.

This is probably a no-brainer for many artists but... scruffynerfherder and I were talking about this last night, and with the increase of "anatomy studies" showing up on dA's front page, it's been on my mind. DA's resource category has some great material, but I also feel like there is a lot of misleading information taught by amateurs who really probably shouldn't be teaching things like shading or anatomy, because they have a less-than-stellar grasp on it themselves. I'm not trying to knock anyone here, but it's a bit troubling to know how many deviants follow this information and learn from flawed examples instead of learning from the real deal themselves. Of course, there's nothing wrong with picking up pointers and tips from others (I encourage it!), but building your own knowledge based on your own observation and experience is key.

Nothing can replicate the experience of drawing from life (which, if you have the opportunity to do so, TAKE IT BY THE HORNS), but since many artists are without access to a live model aside from themselves, here are some links and resources to help you out.

Also, remember: always follow the rules of the stock you're using! And keep in mind that many photos you find on dA or Google are copy written or do not give permission for usage, so if you use them for drawing keep it to your sketchbook for learning purposes only.

OKAY, THAT IS ALL.

Addendum: It has come to my attention that I may have come off as trying to completely discredit anatomical studies as a reference tool. This was not my intention, and next time I do a "quick tips" journal I will be sure to share some real quality anatomical studies and the like, as well as book recommendations. I guess my main point here is: Refrain from using other's studies as a crutch, use a variety of sources and make effort to find out information for yourself, not just seek to be told what to do.

Wow, I never thought of that in my entire life! I have always felt stuck and incapable of drawing and always took other art as reference, including anatomy study and tutorials. You took me to a whole different perspective! I will try to follow your advice and see If I feel more confident about my art.

I just would like to know if you know any good book about anatomy, because sometimes it's easiest to see the different parts decomposed /divided. And well is this tutorial ok : [link] ? I find it rather intersting myself, but I'm not the best to judge, as I'm not very good myself I guess.

I never had actually understood the purpose of stock art until I read this...Either way, I thank you so much for the resources in this entry! I had been wishing for a realistic style, yet my art is very poor, especially with humans. Your guide would be a great help to me.

I´m surprised you havn´t Andrew Loomis listed here, its THE reference for drawing anatomy : [link]You find some new editions on Amazon as also some book preservation sites on the net.Other than that great and useful post!

Glad you agree.Here are some additional and maybe useful links: Google body [link] still not up, I tested a demo a while ago and it looks nice. Another great app filling the gap would be this: [link] from md3d dot com

Even though I'm thirteen I would never copy/reference somebody's drawing for a "study." I feel like it's art theft and that really irritates me. Of course all your points are right. However I don't have much chance to draw from real life but I've noticed this year I've gotten so much better at art just from drawing vases and things in class. I faced this journal for future references(with the proper credit of course!). Oh gawsh I still really need to improve my anatomy.

I personally did my own sketch when referencing on a laptop when I was bored. Took a picture, roughly figured where the outline was and drew out the rest. Looks very flawed, but I think it's quite nice on that level.

Meh, don't bother my silly rant. This has been favourited and all, so yeah. XD

I know that I pulled a whole bunch of animal reference images off the internet last night, along with several skeleton diagrams from veterinary text books and science books to get a creature I was designing to look right.

Never be afraid to reference things! I usually do, but I try to eye-ball them to get it right. At least for my rough pencil work. I then overlay a new sheet and use pens/markers to get my final piece.

The most annoying and common thing is a skeleton with 10 or less ribs. I actually think medicine drawings from books are as good as you can get. I recommend the Netter Atlas for anatomy study (mostly internal) [link] or just google for Netter images.Thank you for this journal, i hope others will learn from it.

Hooray, you put *justmeina in there! I've seen people bash him for having male nude photography in the past, and he very nearly left DA, so it's great to see somebody giving him some positive credit for his well-down artistic nudes.

As for the main subject matter, I wholeheartedly agree that people learning to draw people should be referencing photos of the real thing -- with one exception.

When a person wants to draw realistically, photos are great (and even for stylized stuff it's great knowledge as a basis for anatomy), however when teaching yourself a particular drawing STYLE such as anime or Marvel/DC, I think it's essential to also closely examine drawn works in these styles.

Ideally, you would study both photos and drawn works. I've seen many artists learn anatomy from stylized anime pictures, and their work shows that they don't understand the anatomy that the stylized pictures are based on. However, there is also the opposite -- people who focus so much on realistic anatomy that they dislike their finished works, because they actually want to draw stylized.

Studying a wide variety of references both hand-drawn and photographic seems like the best course to me. There's no right or wrong style to end up with, just the one the artist is pleased with, so it's up to each artist individually to come up with a balance between realism and stylized that they are satisfied with.

I'm not calling your article wrong about this, I just wanted to add this comment about hand-drawn and stylized work as well for anybody reading who might think this means they should be drawing realism or not drawing at all. I think the article is very well-done and great subject matter, which is why I've added it to my favs. Also, THANK YOU for the links to great stock accounts! I love using those as inspiration and reference for interesting poses.

I'd just like to point out to anyone who doesn't have access to life-drawing groups or classes that mirrors are good. It's totally okay to practice from a mirror, even the best artists often use mirrors for pose reference! (James Gurney, for one...) Mirrors are also handy for checking things if you're drawing something from imagination, or even from photo refs (say if there's a bit that's not quite clear...)

Two full length mirrors will let you check side and back views. Some of the pros even have folding multi-panel mirrors.

Though of course if you get a chance to go to life drawing sessions, go. Those are absolutely gold.

And if you don't have access to life drawing, carry a sketchbook around and sketch people in the street or wherever, whenever you have a chance. That's pretty good practice too.

Re: books... YES! There are many good anatomy books, I hope you do make a list. Having more than one is good, because none of them quite cover everything. Though for a good basic all-around book , the "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Rogers Peck is a good start, very thorough, and pretty clear and detailed. (And not too expensive.)

[link] - this is best thing that I managed to find. It's about 54 hours of video showing everything needed for drawing humans (skeleton and muscles included). Fist 19 videos are free. If I manage to go through this (in a few years ) I'll show you my progress.

True, very true! Though I do have to say, as long as you don't absolutly depend on DA to help you draw, you can learn alot from just browsing around. It's very helpful to look at another artist's work and try to point out what looks right and what looks wrong anatomy-wise. Trying to figure out where another artist went wrong helps me to spot the same mistakes with my own artwork. It also helps me to not just throw my hands up in the air and say "it looks okay enough!" when I'm having a hard time drawing something. Plus, there are plenty of good tutorials from more experienced artists, and as long as you're adept at finding them, you can learn alot more than even school ever taught you.

I try to explain this very thing to fellow artists so often. Seems like every day, but I am sure it isn't in actuality. It is nice to see I'm not crazy (unless we're both way off on this art learning stuff). Hahaha.

In most cases, it is due to the fact that I found the original art they referenced (or eye-balled or traced) from. The likeliness so strong that you can overlay the original image and line up things. When confronted, often the excuse is, "I can't afford art school." or "I can't afford nice books on how to draw." and even, "I can't afford real models." I tell them exactly what you say, and I send them links to resources in order to help them understand and grow. However it never really... ends well. Apparently suggesting them to use real life examples is an egotistical thing to do. I digress.Would you mind if I simply started linking them to this journal?

I very often use multiple resources when drawing, references from art books mostly. Books that where created with the intention of teaching! Not tracing an image off of another artist or anime. When I have used photographic references I've asked the person in question (whom I know closely) if this was appropriate to upload and linked back to that person and the original image I based my work off of. If I where to ever to lazily forget to reference 'X reference book' and someone recognized a pose from it-why would I try to deny it?

"Oh thanks I completely forgot. No worries I'll add that in the description"

It doesn't make someone less of an artist for using references, and admitting to using them doesn't mean you have a crutch! I think pride takes over and someone just wants to fight against it instead of admitting they used a reference image. Many professional artists in both the fields of realism and cartooning that use references regularly. If it be cars, nature, animals, or humans. Someone who traces their work (and will not admit to it) or refuses to admit to a reference may simply be too insecure to want to admit they need help, without realizing that many extremely developed artists rely on references everyday.

I just wish people didn't have to feel afraid to admit to using other resources, it won't make you 'less' of an artist!

One thing I find that helped in recreating a photograph into a semi-anime style was to use the *grid layout in photoshop and have the image on it's own page with the grid applied over it, and using my new drawing window I try to match up where each part of the image lines up with the grid. It's incredibly helpful and can work amazingly well if you take the time, it also means you can keep the over all details and positioning of the anatomy ( if it be from an anime image or real life reference) relatively spot on. Even using it for basic stuff such as mapping the general shape of the head and positioning of facial features-then working on your own from there. While I have no problem with someone using tracing methods for their own use (such as from anatomy books) this method helped me out a great deal and can eliminate the 'need' for tracing some artists may rely on.

*That method is not meant to replace live study or anything on actually learning anatomy-it was in relation to those who use tracing images as a crutch.

I agree. You've a point about pride. Often I feel more love for an artist who can site their references. Be it textures or something they used to guide them in drawing. It's a right pity when all they wish to do is claim everything for themselves. Even if they've got a world of evidence stating otherwise.All it does is make them look bad, and I can't imagine it being very handy for landing a job.

I am not sure that the majority of those who trace go as far as you do in studying. They simply trace. Haha.Of course, the ones I see most regularly are the ones who are also trying to sell the same works. They claim that, because they drew the work, it is theirs. Regardless of how it came to be. This is a tough viewpoint to work with.